Inspector Goole tells the Birling family that Eva Smith is a young woman who dies by suicide by ingesting disinfectant. One by one, he reveals to the characters their role in her death by suicide. In this way, Eva functions less as a character and more as a symbol of the dark heart of the Birling family and society as a whole. Eva is a representative of “millions and millions and millions” of working-class people (207), whose exploitation fuels the capitalist machine and whose suffering is deliberately ignored and obscured by those in power. Since the Birling family struggles to confront the litany of sins and misdeeds they have committed, the inspector repeatedly uses Eva to refocus their attention. She is the embodiment of their failure, a physical representation of the human cost of their success. Rather than offer some abstract critique of capitalism, Goole (and the play as a whole) deliberately frames Eva as a symbol of working-class suffering in early 20th-century Britain.

The symbolic nature of Eva Smith is elucidated by the frequent change in names she undergoes throughout the novel. Arthur knows her as Eva Smith, while she introduces herself to Gerald as Daisy Renton.